PS4 becomes UK's fastest selling console ever

Sony’s PlayStation 4 has struck the first blow in the current generation console wars after becoming the UK’s fastest selling console and thus beating off the challenge of the Microsoft Xbox One.

Sony shifted 250,000 PS4 consoles in the first 48 hours following its launch, according to MCV, and it smashed Microsoft’s Xbox One, which sold around 150,000 in its first 48 hours a week prior to the PS4 being released.

The console takes the record from the first release of the Sony PSP eight years ago that, in comparison, sold a paltry 185,000 units when it first saw the light of day in 2005.

Sony’s latest console also outperformed the launch week sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 with the current installed base on the current gen consoles, which also includes the Nintendo Wii U, already standing at 600,000 units in the UK alone.

Both the PS4 and Xbox One have sold the same amount of consoles in 48 hours that the aforementioned Nintendo current-gen console has since its launch in November 2012. When it comes down to the monetary figures involved, MCV estimates that in the UK PS4 sales reached £87 million in the opening two days of sales.

Over the pond in the US it’s a different story with Black Friday sales of the Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox 360 accounted for 61 per cent of console sales with Sony’s PS3 and PS4 taking in just 30 per cent.

Black Friday, a major shopping event across the globe, brought in some $1.198 billion [£730.3 million] in sales for retailers, according to comScore, which was a 15 per cent increase compared with last year. Amazon was the most popular site of the lot on Black Friday.

The Consumer Electronics Association’s [CEA] Black Friday survey found that 21 per cent of holiday weekend shoppers purchased video game hardware and 55 per cent of “tech shoppers” did so online.